NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter was lost after one team used English units while another expected metric units for a key spacecraft operation.

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"NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter was lost after one team used English units while another expected metric units for a key spacecraft operation."

JPL's preliminary review identified the English-versus-metric unit mismatch as the key information-transfer error behind the spacecraft loss.

Source title Mars Climate Orbiter Team Finds Likely Cause of Loss

Source authors NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Source year 1999

Confidence high

Importance high